The shipping industry has for years provided a service to customers allowing them to send packages to destinations all around the world. To enable the shipper to identify, route, and deliver the packages efficiently to their intended destinations, shippers typically rely on printing a shipping label that may be applied to the package before delivery. The shipping label may indicate information such as the name and address of the sender, the name and address of the recipient, the type of delivery service, as well as various other pieces of information related to the delivery of the package. In some cases, the shipper may include one or more special codes, such as bar codes or MaxiCodes, on the package that may be scanned quickly and easily for routing and tracking purposes as the package is being delivered.
When a customer wants to ship a package using the services provided by the shipper, the customer typically visits a facility of the shipper to provide shipping information for the package so that a shipping label can be generated. As a result, the customer may face several inconveniences related to shipping a package, such as searching for a nearby facility where the package may be dropped off, traveling to and from the facility, and waiting in line at the facility to arrange for shipment of the package. In many instances, a customer may not have the time or the means to generate a shipping label for the package or to travel to a shipping facility in order to have a shipping label generated.
Thus, there is a need in the art for methods, apparatuses, systems, and computer program products for allowing a customer to conveniently ship a package without requiring the customer to generate a shipping label for the package.